Your Browsing History Is Stuck Due To Safari Bug (And Here’s Why)
A bug in Safari 15 leaks your browser activity and exposes your personal information. iPhoned explains how this happened.
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Update January 20, 14:07
Apple is now working on solving the problem. Hopefully, macOS Monterey, iOS 15, and iPadOS 15 will soon include an updated version of Safari. However, Apple did not specify how long it will be before the fix becomes available.
Original message:
Bug in Safari throws your personal data on the street
The current version (15) of Safari on the iPhone, iPad and Mac contains an annoying bug. According to FingerprintJS, browsing activities and Google account data are shared with others.
A Google account is regularly used to sign in to specific websites, such as YouTube or Google Mail. But your Google account is often also given as an option to create an account on websites.
The flaw is in Apple’s implementation of IndexedDB, a tool used by virtually all major websites to build some sort of local database of information. This also stores your Google ID, among other things.
The idea behind this is that only the website that enters this data is allowed to view it. But the Safari bug makes it possible for other websites to access this data as well. This will give you access to the public data in your Google account. For example, you should think of your personal user ID and your profile picture. In addition, your browsing activities (from other tabs and browser windows) are also passed on.
Demo website to show the bug in Safari
A demo website has been created that shows exactly how the bug in Safari works. Here you can see how the websites see what your Google account is and which other websites you have open in the other tabs.
What are you doing about the bug in Safari 15?
When you surf on the Mac, you can still switch to another browser, such as FireFox or Chrome, until the problem is solved by Apple.
On the iPhone and iPad this is more difficult. Other browsers can be downloaded from the Apple Store, but they all use the same underlying Safari engine. So even if you use Chrome on your iPhone, for example, you still suffer from the Safari bug. The bug was already reported by FingerprintJS on November 28 of 2021, but Apple still hasn’t fixed the issue to date.
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